Modern methods for supplying meat to the table have only a sliver in common with how animals are intended to live and grow. The FDA has recently cited yet another problem with those methods, and the recommended changes could have serious ripples in more than the food supply chain.
Antibiotics In Food Animals – The Hidden Danger
Problems in the meat producing and packing industries abound, and many have been well-documented in books like Slaughterhouse. The demand to produce meat products in large quantities, and at the lowest possible cost, invites abuses like overcrowding of animals and low quality feed, among others. One of the “solution” to these problems has included the use of low doses of antibiotics added to animal feed. The theory goes that providing low doses of antibiotics to food animals actually reduces overall antibiotic consumption by preventing disease outbreaks. It doesn’t hurt that low dose antibiotics in food animals also increases weight gain by as much as 3%, which reduces feed costs to the producer.
Altogether, the use of antibiotics in food animals accounts for over 80% of the total antibiotics used in the U.S. Estimated use of “low dose preventative” antibiotics in food animals in the U.S. run as high as 15 million pounds annually. Taking this into account, a recent FDA announcement called the overuse of antibiotics in food animals a “serious threat” to public health. Expanding on their announcement, they cite evidence that the general overuse of antibiotics is spawning the development of antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria. Studies published in independent medical journals have shown antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria passed from food animals to humans, and an increase in the amount of salmonella contaminated meat products in supermarkets.
Sampling of meat products across the U.S. has found a rampant increases in the occurrence of antibiotic resistant strains of campylorbacter and salmonella. According to the website Keep Antibiotics Working, the increase in antibiotic resistant food-borne pathogens adds an extra $4-5 billion dollars each year to U.S. healthcare costs.
Industry experts argue in favor of the use of so-called sub-therapeutic doses of antibiotics in food animals, saying that only 13% of antibiotics used by the meat industry are used for this purpose. They also argue that limiting the preventative use of antibiotics will lead to an increase in cost to the consumer. One USDA study, conducted in 1999 on the swine industry, seems to confirm their argument, citing a savings of $63 million in feed costs through the use of sub-therapeutic antibiotic drugs.
There are few “good” answers to this problem. Unfortunately, current methods to produce meat products in large quantities and at low costs encourages methods that are not necessarily the healthiest or safest for the welfare of either the animal, or the consumer downstream. The U.S. is behind the rest of the globe on this issue, but fortunately, many large-scale consumers (like McDonald’s) have taken corporate positions that encourage suppliers to reduce the use of antibiotics in the food supply, which will ultimately drive change.
